STRAWBERRY CROWN GIRDL^R AND OTHER INSECTS. 221 



young leaves of lettuce, beans, cucumbers and squash and other 

 plants which were at the time quite free from other insect guests. 

 They worked round cavities in the soft leaves (usually from the 

 under side, but not infrequently from the upper) reaching into 

 the soft tissues, but not piercing quite through both surfaces of 

 the leaf. The plants attacked were much damaged. 



Apple maggot. There seems little to be said about the apple 

 maggot for 1905 except that there is no apparent change in the 

 general situation. It is at least not increasing m extent of 

 injury in Maine. 



Brown-tail moth. By far the most serious insect problem for 

 Maine at present is the brown-tail moth. An account of this 

 destructive and distressing pest was published last year.* A 

 discussion of the moth and a histoi'y of the campaign against it 

 has recently been ably presented in Bulletin of the Department 

 of Agriculture of Maine, Vol. IV, No. 4, as a report of Hon. 

 A. W. Oilman, Commissioner of Agriculture, and Mr. E. F. 

 Hitchings, Entomologist. It hardly seems necessary here, there- 

 fore, to do more than touch upon the work of this Experiment 

 Station in connection with the situation. Previous to the State 

 appropriation for protection against insect ravages, the State 

 Pomological Society expressed a helpful interest in the matter, 

 and the Experiment Station worked in co-operation with the 

 Commissioner of Agriculture in ascertaining the extent of infes- 

 tation. This co-operation was continued during the spring of 

 1905, the Station locating infested areas in the counties of York, 

 Cumberland, Androscoggin, Sagadahoc, Kennebec, . Lincoln, 

 Knox, Waldo, and Hancock. Station bulletins and other 

 printed matter concerning the brown-tail moth and the danger 

 involved were scattered broadcast over the State. 



Whenever the infestation was discovered, the town or local 

 authorities earnestly used every means within their power to 

 inform the people of the danger and incite them to the destruc- 

 tion of the nests. So thoroughly was the work done that for 

 the season just over, no appreciable loss has been experienced in 

 Maine from the brown-tail moth and only a few cases of poison- 

 ing have been reported. It is not to be understood, however, 

 that anything approaching an extermination has taken place. 

 Scattered nests in wild growths remained to form new centers 



• Me. Exp Ptii., Bui. lOS. 



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